HBO Likes 'Girls'

The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: HBO invites two shows back for next year, Teri Hatcher is slumming it, and E! gets an awkward new makeover.

After three weeks on the air and about as much blog coverage as any television show since It's Like, You Know (there was like one blog back then, so relatively speaking that show got covered on all the blogs), the new HBO show Girls has been renewed for a second season. Which is exciting! Supposedly in the second season we see the nuclear accident that will slowly turn the girls into Turtle, E, Vince, and Johnny, which will be really cool to see. HBO also renewed the seriously good show Veep for a second season based on the performance of two episodes. So, good decisions, HBO. Especially on the Girls thing. If that wasn't renewed, half of the internet would be out of a job. (Actually, that wouldn't be such a bad thing maybe.) [Entertainment Weekly]

Eyyohhh dear. Now that Desperate Housewives has ended Teri Hatcher has a new gig and it's... on ABC Family's Jane By Design playing Jane's mother for four episodes (and directing one!). So. Well, you know as they say, work's work, and hell Andie MacDowell's on that show, and she was a pretty big star at one point, so... Teri, girl, you'd better be boffing Nick Roux or the brother or something because otherwise yikes what are you doing. Surely there must be other work for a Desperate Housewife. There has to be. Hell, isn't it time for a Lois & Clark reunion? A stage musical of Tomorrow Never Dies? Something?? Put us on with your agents, Teri. We need to speak with them about this. [Deadline]

It's upfronts time and E! is announcing that it's rebranding itself with a new slogan, "Pop of Culture" (what does that even mean?), and new shows. One of those shows is a comedy talk show à la Chelsea Handler hosted by her brunette spirit sister Whitney Cummings. Yes. The show will be called Love You, Mean It with Whitney Cummings and it will feature the Whitney actress (she will never be on a show without her name in it) riffing on various things having to do with pop culture, relationships, and celebrities. So we'll see you in the fallout bunker. Wait, what? There's more? Terrific. E! is also putting together some scripted series, because there's every indication that they would do those well, including a modern update of The Wizard of Oz and a modern update of the Henry VIII/Anne Boleyn story called Anne of Hollywood. (Bizarrely, that one is produced by E.R.'s John Wells.) Oh, also, hahaha, Kevin Jonas, the, um, less pulchritudinous Jonas let's say, got a reality show called Married to Jonas about him being married to a lady. This is all to say that all the other television networks should just go away because clearly E! can take it from here. Out of the way everyone, here comes E!, barreling at us like some great doom. [The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Deadline]

Apparently the next James Bond movie, Sam Mendes' Skyfall, might be a more serious, emotional Bond than we're used to, possibly because James is still sad that Vesper Lynd got killed (spoiler? No, no spoiler) in Casino Royale. Which is great. We want a sad James Bond almost as much as we want scripted shows about The Wizard of Oz and Kevin Jonas on the E! network. Which is to say quite a lot. [Vulture]

Aw. American Idol winner Kris Allen tried to be all fun and whimsical by having an impromptu record-promoting concert on the Santa Monica Pier but then, in the middle of a song, the coppers came and shut him down. Seriously can anything ever good happen to an American Idol winner? I mean, post-Carrie? Nothing good has happened to a single one of them. It's all gloom and embarrassment. Why have you cursed these youngsters so, Nigel Lythgoe? Why?? [The Hollywood Reporter]